In order to improve driver's safety, driver's convenience, and the like, informing a driver of drive assist information such as information on a traveling state of a vehicle, such as information on an obstacle present in front such as a vehicle, whether or not a vehicle speed is appropriate, and whether or not there is the possibility that a deviation from a lane will occur, via a voice, an image, or the like, is proposed. This allows the driver to be caused to take an avoidance action from a risky event such as collision. However, drive assist information that should be informed to the driver is wide-ranging information, and thus there is the possibility that a situation will occur where a plurality of items of drive assist information are simultaneously informed to the driver and it is difficult for the driver to identify them.
Various methods, apparatuses, and the like, for solving the above problem, are disclosed (e.g., see Patent Literature 1). In a drive assist information providing method described in Patent Literature 1, drive assist information is classified on the basis of urgency, and in the same class, an event having a shortest predicted time before an alarm target event occurs is preferentially provided to a driver. According to the method, information having highest urgency can preferentially be provided to the driver. Thus, also in a situation where a plurality of items of drive assist information should simultaneously be provided, the most important information is provided, whereby drive assist information is allowed to be provided in such a manner that it is easy for the driver to identify the drive assist information.
[PTL 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-246631